Another favourite column has recently bitten the dust. No surprises there. The unfortunate reality is that many pages of the newspaper are no longer for me. I understand that. Newspapers have to reinvent themselves; to continuously replace old readers with new readers. I became an avid newspaper reader in my twenties, and newspapers have to continue to appeal to a twentysomething audience in order to survive. I understand that. I don't like it, but I understand it. And I continue to read the newspaper because it is an old friend. A somewhat cold and disinterested old friend these days, but there it is. Thank God, then, for the sports pages (in Melbourne, anyway), one of the last remaining places where a long-standing columnist doesn't have to watch his back.